Kerala HC acquits four former police officers in custodial death case

August 28, 2025

Kochi: A bench of Justices Raja Vijayaraghavan V and KV Jayakumar of the Kerala High Court quashed the conviction of four former police officers convicted by a sessions court in 2018 in a 2005 custodial death case, and acquitted them. The court said the prosecution case failed due to the flawed and tainted investigation by the CBI.

Six police officers were accused in the case, one of whom died during the court and another, who was sentenced to death-sentence by the sessions court, died while the appeal was pending in the high court. Now the four surviving accused have been given relief.

According to the bench, the evidence produced during the sessions court was not sufficient to convict the accused for the offence of custodial death.

The court called the CBI investigation “high-handed” and said the agency adopted illegal methods to make an eyewitness, who had no real connection with the incident, approver. The high court said the CBI indiscriminately arrayed witnesses, coerced them at gunpoint to approvers, and pressured them into verbally repeating the agency’s version.

The high court also listed other irregularities in the probe:

• Filing of application for tender of pardon outside the boundless jurisdiction of the court (before the Chief Judicial Magistrate);
• Submission of supplementary report within the same lacking jurisdiction of the court;
• All this created an atmosphere of tainted and vitiated investigation, which amounted to a “serious failure of justice at its core”.

According to the verdict, these irregularities violated the fundamental rights and the right to a fair trial of the arrested accused.

28 year old Udayakumar died at Medical College Hospital, Thiruvananthapuram at 11:40 pm due to torture/violence inside the Police Station with severe crush injuries during custodial interrogation after being picked up at Madrugada on 27th September 2005 by Fort Police Station, Thiruvananthapuram, as per the prosecution.

The Sessions Court had awarded death sentence by hanging to two accused and other punishment to other three, which has been cancelled by this High Court judgment.